Potocki

PotockiVodka

The Potockis are a family of the Polish aristocracy, whose involvement in vodka trade dates from 1816, when the Lancut estate (pronounced “wine-soot”) passed into the family. Lancut, located halfway between Krakow and Lvov, included Poland's second oldest distillery, founded in 1784.

Count Alfred I Potocki, an enterprising and innovative land owner, hired specialists to improve quality and increase production capacity. In 1838 he introduced liqueurs and cordials, and in 1857 Lancut obtained the special privilege of becoming a purveyor to the imperial court in Vienna.

Lancut stayed under the control of successive generations of the Potockis until 1944, when the state was confiscated by the communist regime. More than half a century later, Jan-Roman Potocki took up his forefathers’ legacy, producing a spirit expressing the full character of Polish vodka and carrying forth a proud family tradition.

Potocki Wódka today is distilled in central Poland at a small facility surrounded by fields and forests, chosen for its artisanal approach. At every step of production care is taken to privilege taste: superior quality rye is sourced from the fields surrounding the distillery, and the resulting mash is only twice distilled - as every additional run would unnecessarily strip the alcohol of its character – at low speeds to ensure balance and smoothness.

The distillate is tasted at regular intervals before selection and the resulting pure alcohol is watered down to the required strength and tasted again by Jan-Roman Potocki and the distiller.

The vodka is left to rest for a few days and then bottled without charcoal filtration, illustrating again at this final stage the commitment to producing a high-quality spirit with an authentic and distinctive personality.

American critic F. Paul Pacult writes of "a multilayered bouquet that begs for a half hour of sniffing and evaluation", and Robert Plotkin calls it "a remarkable achievement, one worthy of top shelf treatment."